Or Simply "PlumbBob"

Tutorial: How to make a default UI portrait replacement

Ever wanted to change your Sims’ portrait in the user interface? Well, you can do it!

First, open SimPE.

We need to find the ANIM files of these original UI poses. Select “Open”

Now, go to Program Files/EA GAMES/The Sims 2/TSData/Res/Sims3D (don’t go to My Documents!) Open the “Sims00.package” file.

As you can see, there’s A LOT of ANIM files! Don’t worry, you only have to select a few of them. Search for ” a-UIpose-FXX_anim”. XX for 01 to 08 ; a for teen-adult-elder (c for child and p for toddler) ; F is for females (M for males). Select the age groups and genders you want to and then right click and select “Extract”.

I suggest you create a new folder where all the files you extracted will be.

Now, create a new Package and select “Add”.

Select all the XML files from the new folder and select “Open”. Save your Package file.

Now, here’s the “DoWhatYouWantAndItCanBeWTF” part: choosing what animation/pose you want to replace.

Go to ProgramFiles/EA GAMES/*Insert an EP here*/TSData/Res/3D and then you can choose either Objects00.package (ANIM files when Sims interacts with objects) or Sims00.package (ANIM files when Sims… do something without an object).

The ANIM files’ name are self explanatory (at least, a vast majority of them). If you don’t know what animation/pose you want, this will be a bit complicated…

Here’s some tips:

- If you pick an animation rather than a pose, the picture will be taken when the animation started (not in the middle or in the end of the animation)

- Adult animation/poses on children and vice-versa are okay, but keep in mind it cannot always work.

- I don’t recommend choosing a2a or c2c (or any animation with a 2 between two letters) because these are animation/poses between two Sims and some of them can be weird in the picture. Some of them are OK, but it’s not always the case!

- You can pick animation/poses that came with a posebox you created/downloaded!

In this example, I chose the PhotoBooth poses, you can find it in the Object00.package file in the NightLife EP. Extract the ANIM file.

Then again, you can create a new folder for each animation you extract. It will be easy to find them.

Do the same thing if you want to extract others animation/poses. Remember: you have 8 UI different poses per age group and gender. You don’t have to extract so many animations/poses (for example: if you like some of the Original poses, you can skip them. You can also extract only one animation/poses and replace all the original UI poses with this one). The possibilities are endless!

Open your package file and select one of the UIpose. Copy the name somewhere.

Right click and select “Replace”

Select the animation/pose that will replace the original.

Very important: Replace the name with the original one. That way, the game will know that this is a UI pose.

Otherwise, this will happen:

or maybe that’s what you want?

Click on commit!

Anyways, do the same steps with the other UI poses you want to replace.

And… FINISHED! Put your package in your downloads folder and refresh your Sims’ pics with the mirror!

Some examples:

 PhotoBooth pose (romantic)

 PhotoBooth pose (goofy)

 Timid dance animation

 Female family loading screen pose

 Child poses on adult